Page 13 of Cherish

“No, darlin’. I’d never share where you’re concerned.”

He clears his throat, looks away and takes a long, slow sip of his ice water. He surprises me when he reaches across the table and strokes the thin chain around my neck. I take a deep breath, unable to look away from his eyes as he trails his finger to the half heart pendant.

“What’s this?” he asks.

“It was my mother’s.” I clear my throat and drop my gaze to focus back on my breakfast.

“Was?”

“She passed away five years ago,” is all I say.

“I’m sorry.”

I nod, thankful that the tears pooled in my eyes don’t fall.

The rest of the meal flies by and neither one of us talks. Tina brings the bills, and while I dig in my purse for my wallet, he hands her enough cash to cover both meals and a tip.

“You didn’t have to do that. Let me pay you back,” I say, looking inside my wallet for cash. He stands up, wipes his mouth with his napkin and throws it on the table.

“You will not,” he says. “And I want to clear some things up about the day we met.” He walks around to my side of the table and leans down close to my ear. “I wasn’t lost, I’m not slow, I won’t share, but…” He doesn’t speak again until I look up into his eyes. When I do, he smiles and says, “I am interested.” His lips are so close to my ear that I feel his breath on my skin. When his words sink in, my body reacts with goose bumps. I look around, afraid the rest of the patrons will hear the erratic beating of my heart.

As abruptly as he stood up, he walks out of the restaurant, leaving me breathless, bewildered, and completely confused.

CHAPTER 7

JASON

Why the hell did I tell her I was interested? The last thing I need is a woman in my life. I’m still trying to move on from the last woman I really loved and the complicated mess that was. I need another woman in my life like I need a hole in my head.

Alexandra Malone is dangerous. I knew it since the first moment I laid eyes on her, so why am I up in the middle of the night thinking about her? The way her eyes widened, and her breath hitched when I told her I was interested have yet to leave my mind. When she inhaled, her large breasts heaved, and all I wanted to do was stick my head between them and suck on her skin.

I want to leave trails of wet kisses all the way to the treasure that I know I’ll find between her legs. I want to spend hours there, making her come over and over again. While she’s still coming off her orgasmic high, I’d stick my hard cock in her mouth and come down her throat.

As I imagine her swallowing while she wipes some of my release from the corners of her mouth, I come all over my stomach. With a loud grunt, I reach over and grab tissues, wiping myself clean.

Exhausted, I turn over, hug my pillow and fall asleep with thoughts of her.

I don’t track her down at the café like I did a few days ago. In fact, I make it a point not to be outside at all when she arrives to work like I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks.

I’ve missed seeing her walking into work, always with a smile on her face. Whenever she was forced to stop at the crosswalk, she’d sway to whatever music she was listening to. Inevitably her eyes would find mine and the smile would slip from her lips. She’d look away, but not before I’d see the color creep across her smooth cheeks.

I’ve missed seeing her, but as I make my way to her office now, I know I’ll get to feast my eyes on her soon. I only have a few minutes, and when I feel my phone vibrate, I assume it’s the attending physician telling me to get my ass to the operating room immediately, but it’s a text from a phone number I don’t recognize.

Call me! It’s Natalie.

Typical Natalie. It’s always about her. She only hears what she wants, not what’s being said. If she did, she would never contact me again. Obviously, she’s figured out I blocked her number, so what does she do? She probably downloaded some app that blocks her number.

I delete the text and slide the phone back in my pocket.

Not today, Natalie. Never again. This roller-coaster ride has finally come to a complete stop. Putting all thoughts of her out of mind, I take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator this morning.

I make the five flights in record time and burst through the doors of the business office. All three women look up at me at the same time, but I only have time for one. We stare for several seconds, but when her eyes leave mine, I stand still and let her get her fill of my body. The spell is broken when Mellie clears her throat.

“What brings you here, big brother?” she asks.

“I thought I’d bring you ladies a snack.” I take out a box with the Beantown Café logo on it. “Thought you might enjoy some muffins.”

Mellie will eat anything, and I don’t know or care about Ananda’s preferences, but I do know that Alex will grab a muffin whenever she doesn’t sit down for a full breakfast.

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